“The economies in our towns need to be supported, so that everyone can make a living in the town they grew up in,” Driskell said in comments handed out by campaign staff. “No one should have to move to find work with all of the possibilities here at home for new and revitalized business.”

Driskell hammered Walberg for voting in favor of the House Republicans’ health care bill passed in May, saying the legislation would raise premiums for the the predominantly blue-collar constituents in the district.

And she pitched the district’s industrial workers on revamping the economy, saying Michiganians “are known throughout the world for building and innovating, in shops large and small” and that “now is the time to build on these efforts.”

“Voters already rejected Gretchen Driskell because she lied repeatedly on her resume, couldn’t pass any bills as a legislator and now she starts her campaign in debt,” Wicks said in a statement said, alluding to a time Driskell referred to herself as a real estate broker even though she was a real estate agent who did not have a broker’s license.

Walberg first won his seat in 2006, under different district lines, defeating Democrat Sharon Renier by 4 points in a hotly contested race. He lost it in 2008 to Democrat Mark Schauer and reclaimed it two years later. The district was made more Republican under a new map adopted during redistricting after the 2010 census.

His share of the vote has climbed each cycle since then, from 50 percent in 2010 to 55 percent last year.